The Methods Of Evangelism, Part 3 - Lesson 11
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09:17:00
Came down to the front of a conference, or a church, during an altar call, and the Lord genuinely regenerated them. In the moments leading up to that, or surrounding that. So we're not saying that the Lord doesn't save people in the midst of those— Use of methods, but we're saying: what is most biblical, most effective, most honoring to the message that we have and consistent with that? And so that's what we were evaluating last time in those. I want to look at a couple of others. Another is revivals. Revivals. So it's not uncommon to drive down a road, especially in our area of the country,
09:18:00
and see maybe a church sign that says, you know, "Revival next Sunday," or "next Friday," or whatever you're going to schedule it. And it's a planned revival. And once again, we're not saying that the Lord hasn't used those services to encourage people, draw people to Himself. But we should ask the question: okay, can we plan a revival? Can we plan a revival? What do you think? Yes or no: why or why not? We can pray for one. We can pray for one. Okay, yeah. What does that assume then about revival? It's not according to us. It's a movement of God. Yeah, it's a movement of God. It is not generated by our— in other words, we could back ourselves up, once again, to our theology and say, okay,
09:19:00
what is the condition of the sinner? The sinner is dead in sin. What is the change that brings about life? What is it that God does to truly bring someone to saving faith? Well, regeneration. He does it through the preaching of the Word, through the means of our prayers, but it is the work of God who is acting upon the dead heart to bring them to life. That is not something that we can say is going to happen at a particular time and place. And so there's where our theology then kind of— not kind of— does inform what we see as our role and God's role. So maybe a helpful place to consider would be 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Sorry. Not 1 Corinthians 4. 1 Corinthians 3. It's on the same page.
09:20:00
In my Bible. So half credit for me. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 5. Paul says, "What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted Apollos-watered; but God gave the growth." So neither he who plants nor he who waters He who plants and he who waters is anything but only God who gives the growth. are one in each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, God's building. So God is the one who causes growth. God is the one— so we are those who sow the seed, you might say, the parable of the sower. You went out to sow his seed. But the sower can't guarantee growth
09:21:00
but what he can do is seek to do all he can to provide conditions that are maybe more habitable for growth, getting out of the way in certain areas. So we think about farming is a great illustration. The farmer puts in great effort till his soil, plants the seed, waters it, does everything he can and yet he must, at the end of the day, or she, depend upon God to bring about life. And bring about germination of that seed and growth. And so it is for us. We see our— and the same is true in sanctification. We might say that maybe that's a better illustration for sanctification, because we use the means of the Word of God: prayer, fellowship, the ordinances, and the means that God has given us—
09:22:00
corporate worship and that's like tilling the soil, watering, planting. And prayer. And then God sees fit to use those means to grow us more into Christ-likeness. But he also uses the means of the Word of God to bring life. We are brought to life through the— by the Word of truth, James tells us, James 1. So what we can do is put in place the means that God often is pleased to use and he's told us that he will use to bring about regeneration. And those things would be things like what we said, right? Fervent prayer. For the lost. Faithful teaching and preaching of the Word. Evangelism. These kinds of means and others that the Lord sees fit to use
09:23:00
and calls us to do. And then we pray fervently that the Lord brings about the change that he desires. So I heard someone using the illustration of the first and second great awakenings. In the Americas. And maybe this is somewhat of a oversimplification, but there are some truths to this, that in the first great awakening, you had a revival that was really— how do I put it— you had true revival that was happening through the preaching and prayer of the people. And, you know, you got people like Edwards and Whitefield and Edwards is actually trying to write some works
09:24:00
during that time to help people discern true and false movements. He writes the Religious Affections. And what is the nature of true saving faith? As people are responding really dramatically to the Word of God. And so he writes Religious Affections to address that. It's a great book. It's kind of hard reading. But it is very good. And edifying. So in the first great awakening, you have what seems to be real genuine revival happening where many people are coming under conviction and not just conviction, but conversion. And there's great change taking place. In the second great awakening, you seem to have more of what we would call revivalism. And I think this is a distinction that is really made by Ian Murray. In his book, Revival and Revivalism. And you can notice what he's doing there.
09:25:00
He's making a distinction between true work of God revival and then a revivalism which is trying to generate revival through human means. And so you have in the second great awakening, that's where you have guys like Charles Finney, which we mentioned last time a little bit, who really his theology informs him in such a way that he's like, we can create this on our own. We can just put in place the methods that will guarantee a result. Add water, stir, and revival, right? So you have this difference between the two. We don't need to consider the motives of everyone. Certainly there's probably people who had good motives in that, no doubt. But the question I want to ask is, can we enter ourselves guarantee a revival I think the answer to that is no. That is the work of God.
09:26:00
But can we put ourselves in the place or put ourselves under the kinds of things that God tends to or does not let me rephrase this. Can we do the things that are always a part of revival? That are always associated with revival. And the answer is yes, absolutely we can. What is always associated with true revival? The right preaching of the Word of God. Fervent prayer by the people of God. We might even say intentional discipleship and conversations about the things of God. And eagerness to gather with the people of God and worship together. So these kinds of things and maybe we could list some others are the things that are associated virtually always with true works of God and revival. And yet we can't be the ones that say, this is going to happen at this time and place.
09:27:00
Obviously, I think that, you know, planned revivals often are very associated with altar calls and sinner's prayers as well. But I bring it up separately because it's a common thing that we see especially around here, that I see a lot. And so if you want to read more, I think maybe a helpful book is read Ian Murray's book, Revival and Revivalism. It's this really interesting to you to see some of the differences there. Between the first and second great awakenings and some of the differences there. Any other comments there or thoughts about thinking about that revivals revivalism? Okay. I don't think we need to yes. See that hand. Well, I just I didn't really keep up with it, but you guys might be here last week. So you all might have talked about it, but I don't know if you all saw like the revivals recently. It's not recently.
09:28:00
A couple of years ago in a college campuses. Oh, yeah, yeah. What are your thoughts on that? And I kind of kept up with it at the beginning and but like at first it really did seem like a true revival maybe. And you know, I don't know if then it started becoming a free revival. I don't know really what happened. But I just does that seem like a true like revival to you? Yeah. I guess I'd have to look at like specific examples of where those are. But maybe if I could be a little bit more general just for broader application. That's I think that's exactly the kind of thing that Edwards was trying to address that exact question in the religious affections. And essentially because there it won't be
09:29:00
the last time that there's some kind of excitement we might say. And people are making responses and there's question or people are quick to label something. This is a revival, right? Because they just see interest. In spiritual things or in the Bible or people gathering together and singing worship songs. Things like that. For extended periods of time. And I think the question or I think maybe we should just have just a level of wait and see and caution for those kind of things because we just don't know what it similar to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7 when he talks about worldly sorrow and godly sorrow. He's understanding that there can be tears and a great emotion in a person's life and it not be true repentance and there can be tears and great emotion and it is true repentance. So what he does is say
09:30:00
Paul, you can't just look at the external excitement, emotionalism you have to look at the results that come from that. And I think there's where you can then look in retrospect and say does it have the marks of what we would expect in scripture from a true work of God in the heart over a lot of different people. And of course in any if you're going to say revival in a land or in a region yeah of course you'll have people still who get swept up in the movement who are not truly a part of that. But I think if you could say like the core if there's a lot of people who are making responses that are indicative of true saving faith of true repentance of lasting change then I think you can say this really is a remarkable work of God
09:31:00
that is not the norm of what we've seen. So I can't remember all the specifics of some of those past things from a couple of years ago but I'm always as well like looking at what's the theology that's being put forward in these kind of movements as well. Because I think personally that one of the marks of a true revival is sound doctrine, right? It's going to be a concern for precision and care with the word of God. So hopefully that's helpful a little bit. If you want more you can take a deep dive into Edwards. I'm serious. Religious affections and you could see how he's trying to be very careful and say this is indicative according to scripture of a true work of God. And he's just giving that as like almost a rubric biblically so that his people and others in their time can say is what's happening over here meeting those criterion or is it not. And so I think that that's really
09:32:00
the only way I think we could evaluate that. And so I think there's a level of hey excitement because we say wow these people are wanting to gather together to pray to read the Bible to hear preaching and sing like who's not going to be you know interested in that and excited. But then we want to ask critical questions and say what's being taught who's teaching and what are some of the results and effects of that. Is that kind of helpful a little bit? Yeah. Any other questions about revival? Robert. Yes. It appears to me that a lot of what used to be revival is now comfort. Oh, that's great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just different kind of confidences. And to me looking at it from both sides I can't tell a whole lot of difference. If I was a revival is they use the word of God
09:33:00
and theology and so. Yeah. And actually I have that in my notes. I just forgot to say it. So thank you. like it's let's just call it a conference, right? If we want to have it's totally great I said I basically wrote in my notes to have people invite people come together to sing and special times devoted to really giving ourselves to intensive preaching and lots of it and prayer and fellowship and resources being given out and things like that. I mean that I mean in some ways I think I hope I'm not misquoting him. Someone was asking MacArthur years ago about like revival or something and he basically as far as I recollect something to the extent of like we are in a revival. Like we're seeing a revival of reform theology like we've never seen before. Among young people and he was just basically talking
09:34:00
about the reach of the internet and podcasts and sermons available by lots of sound teachers with similar theology. And a high view of God and the doctrines of sovereign grace and just a big view of God. And he was just comparing that to the past when that wasn't as common and now it's just like prolific. It's all over the place. So in that sense you might say yeah there has been a great awakening of the doctrines of sovereign grace a desire that people have for expository preaching sound local churches so in that sense I think you could say there is revival in that regard where there are people who really want these things and are trying to find those and want more of it. And maybe we could even say based on I mean I know this isn't a great metric
09:35:00
but some of the conferences that you know have come and gone I mean just lots of people thousands of people who are desirous of really the same kind of things. So yeah I think a conference is great and you know Lord willing we'll invite someone out have some conferences you know in the future and just for extended time on a certain subject or topic or just to hear an intensive of scripture. That can only do us good. So I think that's a good thing. I'm just more about the bringing up like the nomenclature. Like what do we call that? Just call it a conference. You know now if someone calls it arrival and essentially that's what it is okay I mean fine. You know but I'm not like going to meddle that much but I just I think we want to be precise there's a Puritan I can't remember who it was he says you know you're so precise why are you always so precise you want to be so you know and he says because I serve a precise God
09:36:00
and it's very true. So he wanted to have precision in everything he did because he has a precise God. So yeah we want to we're not after we're not against like gathering together for special times of worship and intensive Bible teaching and even calling sinners to repent as we as well as equip the saints but I think we're going to say like what is it that we're deeming success or not in one of these events faithfulness is communication of the word of God clearly and we leave the results to the Lord and we praise God when he does bring about a really remarkable work of his spirit where there's great interest in the things of God so all right I've see if we'll make much more progress this next one maybe is going to be a little bit more controversial
09:37:00
but of all these are I guess in some way some regard but I just want us to think through these things and say how should we think about this let's put a biblical lens on this and just try and think is this the best way we can communicate or think or practice our methodology what about saying to an unbeliever who has not made a profession of faith as far as we know they're not a Christian as we evangelize them what about saying Jesus died for you Jesus died for you should we say to unbelievers hey Jesus died for you so you should repent do we need to say that is that essential to the gospel to say that does anyone anywhere in the Bible
09:38:00
does someone in the Bible when evangelizing to an unbeliever say Jesus died for you you're like well maybe I can't think of an example but I know it's there no what would be the what would potentially be a challenge to saying that are you you know like limited opponent sure yep yeah what's that I guess that would be the answer to that last question like can't really say that if limited atonement is what you're getting at I don't think you can say Jesus died for you because he died for the elector did he die for yeah yeah is that what you're getting at yes yeah yeah that's really at the core of it so there there's where we're going from theology to methodology right
09:39:00
so if our theology is Christ made an actual atonement for a particular group of people not a potential atonement for an indiscriminate nameless group of people that he actually atoned for the sins of the elect then unless someone repents and believes then we don't know if Jesus died for them right what might be think about just if you had a really thoughtful unbeliever and you said to them Jesus died for you and so you you should repent so that you don't go to hell what might they respond with if they're really astute if he already died for me why do I need to repent yeah exactly
09:40:00
so why am I going to hell if Jesus has paid for all my sins why is God going to punish me in hell if my sins are already punished in Jesus you just explained to me you know let's just assume we explained to substitutionary atonement and Christ's righteous life for for his people to be credited to them so if you're telling me that's all true and Jesus has done that for me then why is it that I need to repent and believe how so this is what John Owen brought up in his book The Death of Death and the Death of Christ and he basically used the illustration of like double jeopardy right you know double jeopardy is in legal law court where you can't be tried twice for the same crime and so the idea is well and you usually we think about it in these terms but maybe it doesn't make its way out into our practice
09:41:00
we would say sometimes we'll say either you are going to pay for your sins forever in hell and you won't be able to pay for your sins or Christ has paid for your sins and you can be right with God and enter into eternity and enjoy him forever and we often put it that way but then sometimes there's an inconsistency there with this language what might we say instead and feel free if you have questions about this like wait a minute you know bring those kind of questions too but but what might be a another thing you could say that would still indicate the death of Christ and the importance of that and the relevance of that for this unbeliever could you say do you believe that Jesus died for you yeah you could say that I would be more interested in the reason
09:42:00
why the father raised his son back up because like in as all of Jesus and Romans sitting on the pen the emphasis on is on being brought back because a bunch of people were crucified and died sure oh yeah where you were going. And like you're saying if you get into the yeah how he died for us why why well what about there's only one resurrection is going to count it yeah so yeah I'm saying that's right no yeah to not on the death sure you're bringing it full. Yeah the full or package of the work of Christ witness to somebody in the yeah I think you say have you believed that Christ has died and been raised on your behalf I think I think you can say that because what you're doing is you're you're asking the question is that your trust is that your hope maybe you could say something like this when you're talking to an unbeliever and reasoning with them
09:43:00
Jesus died for sinners just like you right Jesus died for sinners just like you or Christ has died for all those who would believe Christ has died for all those who believe I I say that all the time maybe you haven't noticed it but in in giving the gospel out and in a sermon or or different things I say both of those how about this if you come to Christ he will in no wise cast you out all that come to Christ he receives so so don't hear me incorrectly particular redemption is not opposed to the free offer of the gospel actually I think it establishes the free offer of the gospel Jesus in John chapter 10 in John chapter 10 he's talking to the religious leaders
09:44:00
and that's the good shepherd section I'm the good shepherd in verse 11 it says I am the good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep so in other words Jesus dies for the sheep then we jump down and later he's talking to this religious leaders and they say if you are the Christ tell us plainly and then verse 25 Jesus answered them I told you and you do not believe the works that I do and my father's name bear witness about me and then notice what he says in verse 26 but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me so Jesus here is talking to these religious leaders and he says you don't believe in me and the reason he gives for why they don't believe in him is because they're not part of his flock
09:45:00
and what is the nature of his flock well he said that he lays his life down for the sheep so Christ dies for the sheep and secures their belief in him so all those for whom Christ has died will believe and the reason that they don't believe is because they're not part of his sheep I think this is as close to Jesus simply saying to these religious leaders I am not dying for you because they're locked in their unbelief and John 17 he says chapter 17 verse 9 in his high priestly prayer he says I am praying for them his people the ones whom the father has given to him I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me for they are yours
09:46:00
so the high priest had a dual role one was to pray for the people on behalf of God the other was to offer sacrifice on behalf of the people so you might say that he was to pray for the people and he was to pay for the people 's sins in the sense of offering a sacrifice well that's what Jesus does he pays for his people and he prays for his people and and Jesus is saying to the religious leaders you don't believe because you're not part of my sheep and I laid my life down for the sheep and then in 17 he's saying I'm praying for you the the ones whom the father has given to me and I'm not praying for the world and so his high priestly ministry is done for those whom the father has given to him so I think we can we can thread this needle carefully but be faithful and say why wouldn't you come to Christ Christ has died for sinners just like you if you would come to him in repentance and faith he would forgive you his word says so
09:47:00
look at his signature he will not cast out any who come to me all who come to me I will receive come to me you are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you for I'm gentle and lowly of heart you will find rest for your souls don't you want rest for your soul Christ came to give you rest and we plead with sinners and we summon them to faith and here's the way that you can know that Christ has died for you with assurance with certainty that you've repented that you've believed that you have rested upon Christ so are you resting upon Christ today is he your hope in life and in death then Christ has died for you Christ has given himself so we absolutely should reassure our own hearts Christ has died for me and he has put death to death through his death um you know there is little comfort in a potential atonement requiring us to activate it
09:48:00
but there is great comfort in an actual atonement that secures even our belief it guarantees that we would believe and embrace Christ you can't do anything potentially like one of my friends said hey go potentially open the fridge for me and get me a drink what does that even mean you know so Christ isn't potentially atoned for people he has names names that were written in the book of life that he'll never erase that he has taken to the cross and so Christ has died for specific individuals and how do we know who those individuals are well they're the ones who have responded in belief because those who believe are part of his flock he laid down his life that they would believe all right give me some feedback pushback any comments questions clarifications I think the hardest thing is just getting someone to acknowledge that that they are a sinner and deserve hell yes people think they are good enough and deserve that
09:49:00
yes absolutely yeah and especially I mean that's probably one of the biggest things one of my mentors used to say our job is to get people lost first right before they can get saved and what do we meant was like show them the law of God show them the standard of God show them that they're not right with God right that brings up something I think that's important we need to know the people that we're talking to and how they hear the words that we're saying to them like if we went to another culture and we would need to learn their language and learn their culture to know like when they hear the message of Jesus what are they hearing are they hearing like receive Jesus along with all of your pantheon of gods or are they seeing and recognizing that he's the only god the only one who through whom the world was created and you need to reject all of your gods are they hearing that and so for our people those who are around us
09:50:00
think one of the things is people tend to just think of God as just unconditional love accepting them in their state that they're in you know hey God already loves you and we kind of pile on with this pre-acceptance type language for people before they're even brought to the reality of their sin and they're estrangement from God and so I think we can speak about the character of God absolutely his goodness especially in providing a way of salvation but the sinner needs to be put in their place before they will realize that they need Christ and so I think that's very important to do all we can in that yes I don't know if we'll have time to get through this question we're out of time we have left but what about you know the people in our lives
09:51:00
that especially the ones that we love you know around the bible belt they they go to church they might go to church every Sunday but like there's no fruit you know obviously it's not our place to say if someone is safe or not but if they think they're a believer and you know you're not sure of you know and you're not sure how does that make sense yeah of course yeah actually had a whole section on thinking about having a discussion about that very issue of how do we what's best practices for evangelizing someone who thinks they're a Christian I mean that that's like the air we live and move and breathe in right there are lots of people like that and so hang on to that okay sorry I was intending to talk about that yeah
09:52:00
I was thinking maybe if you're talking like instead of saying Jesus died could you I think it was Paul in in one of his sermons he put you in since I'm judgment is coming yeah only those who trust in Christ will be forgiven of their sin yeah so you can be forgiven absolutely of your sins through Christ's death if you'll trust in him yep maybe maybe making it more like there's the opportunity to be saved through his death yeah trust in him instead of assuming that or like saying it as if you're assuming and putting more of the emphasis on judgment is coming for all who don't yeah trust in his death absolutely I think that's a great way to put it yeah warning of coming judgment if you're in the ark of Christ then you'll be saved from the coming wrath yeah while we're out there sometimes we get odd little things for anybody else for myself yeah you want to win or Christ in the moment
09:53:00
is it's what we the scripture we read from Corinthians it's not us but we want to and so in those moments sometimes we want to win and really Christ has already won and so I think it's key for us to remember that yep that it's a steady you know you may witness somebody I may witness to that person through a previous layer consistent truths and I was listening to the person in the background about loved ones that's very much the case. This is my experience there where I mean I'm having a sibling who didn't speak to me for two years but the truth prevailed yeah through prayer and a lot of loving you know opportunities there but that's I think this for me that's something that I've learned is I don't I don't have to win the conversation because Christ has already won the work yeah and I I get to be a part of it
09:54:00
yeah sometimes yeah yeah I mean that's very simplified absolutely that's going back to the motivation like I get to be a part of bringing the news of life to this person and God it's in your hands and and so yeah that back to that faithfulness just so you know like I've said to people a lot I think Jesus died for you you know just indiscriminately but I try not to say that anymore I don't think I do ever since I became convicted of the truthfulness of particular redemption so I'm just saying if you're not even convinced of that yet then just I would just say think about it you know think about the implications of what you're saying and also like do you embrace particular redemption is that is that a conviction of yours and if if so and I think it should be then shouldn't that play out in the language that you use as you appeal to sinners so that's what I'm asking you to consider as I had to do that as well
09:55:00
yeah yeah please do I have I think it can be helpful sometimes you should say that believers in our area to say how do you know you believe you shall know them by their fruits kind of an idea fruit fruit and one angle would be to put it on yourself you know sometimes I've had doubts about my salvation and do I really believe whatever and and then point to the issue of fruit you know that kind of thing and what about you you know what do you think the fruits are in your life the true belief because you know the Bible says even the demons believe each other right so we we want to try to get them to that next level of what is the quality of this belief that you say you have and that kind of gets into the thing Robert talked about a couple of weeks ago in the Latins noticia oh yeah you know and all that how how was it you said it to Robert yeah knowledge ascent and trust is that what you're saying
09:56:00
yeah since this noticia noticia is the Latin but so yeah knowledge yeah yep yeah saying really three words and then trust yeah and try to distinguish between because when you read that even the safe even the demons believe each other like whoa how do I know I believe properly you know I believe enough you know so the fruit issue can be very helpful James is talking about what is the nature of saving faith of true saving faith and he says what good is it my brothers yeah and we'll talk about this more but Richie's getting at a great point here just James 2:14 if someone says he has faith but does not have works can that faith save him in other words can can the faith so to speak quote unquote that doesn't produce works save and his answer is no because it's not saving faith right so he's just putting forth this idea of hypothetically a faith that doesn't produce works well that's not the same and that's where you get you know
09:57:00
the demons have a faith so so to speak where they believe facts about Jesus but they don't embrace him in in trust not that there is a plan of salvation for demons just to clarify oh there's something else I was gonna oh yeah about the about your point I think we should just expect if we're gonna if we're gonna and we should go there with certain people especially people close to us it may put a big strain on the relationship you know you were a letter one time to family member who professes faith but does not know the Lord and just appealing to look to Christ turn to Christ just kind of asking those questions of you know how do you know that you're really saved I mean these are these are some of the marks and it was not well received
09:58:00
right so that that may happen I mean we want to do as gracious as we can but at the same time we can we're concerned for for souls that are maybe inoculated to the gospel and and maybe I'm just gonna say maybe some of these methods were part of what inoculated them to the gospel in the first place so that's why we want that's why some of this is important I'm not saying that I'm not going to lay all the blame on that but I think that that is something to consider I didn't see that too all the letters what he talks about the fruits of the spirit person. The works of the flesh and the relationship yep you know it shows up you know you can say that warn you as I warned you before those who do these things will not inherit kingdom of God yeah very bluntly yeah absolutely and and he's yeah don't be deceived because why people get deceived about these things
09:59:00
and so so yeah we'll we'll definitely talk about that more I have a little section on that and be thinking about that more all right well there's our time and this seems like a good stopping point we have a few few more things to cover as we land the plane on evangelism but I'm enjoying these discussions I hope you are as well just to want to think carefully we set the foundation now we can kind of all right what about this what about that and just try to apply our theology in our methodology more carefully and let me just say this in closing I probably have 30 seconds that don't be afraid to if you're evangelizing with someone and you can tell that they're wondering based on how you're speaking like that you believe in particular redemption or something don't be afraid to talk about the doctrines of sovereign grace with an unbeliever thinking like well that's like when they're when they're saved then we'll teach him the doctrines of grace like total property unconditional election I can't talk about unconditional election with an unbeliever what if they say what if I'm not elect
10:00:00
well so then talk about how they can know that they're elect by believing right none of us know who's elect Spurgeon said something like I don't know if he said like there's an if there was an E on people's back or a line down their back or something we would be lifting up shirt tails to see you know who who it is that are the elect and preach the gospel to them but we don't know we don't know who those are and so we indiscriminately give out the gospel and although who are God's elect will believe because Christ has purchased them he will not lose one his sacrifice will not be wasted in any in any sense and so don't be afraid to if that comes up to say well actually this is the Bible's teaching maybe you've heard because it's very common that Jesus has just died for every single individual who's ever lived including those who were in hell right now but that's not the teaching of the Bible the Bible doesn't teach that and then you're going to open yourself up
10:01:00
to all kinds of questions like what about John 3:16 what about you know da da da and and so then you're going to be driven to the scripture which is what we talked about in the beginning of the series how evangelism makes you know your Bible better okay so let me pray father thank you for the reality we just want to pray and thank you that Christ has died for us we who have embraced you through faith not by our own doing but through your regenerating work we believe that regeneration precedes faith logically that you caused light to shine into our hearts you you cause life to to occur through regeneration and we heard that call to repent and believe and we responded with this awakened heart like Lazarus responded when he was called out of the tomb to come out and so Lord may we go in confidence that all those for whom Christ has died
10:02:00
will come and we can be bold to present Christ to a lost world knowing that there will be success with the message we don't know all those whom you have sought to redeem for your glory for the display of the full panoply of your attributes for all eternity in the ages to come but we will do what you've commanded us to do to tell out the gospel indiscriminately to give the free offer of the gospel to say to whomever we have opportunity come come to the waters you who thirst who have no money come buy and eat buy wine and milk without money and without cost why will you spend your labor on things which do not satisfy Lord may we have that eager heart to plead with sinners that they would turn to Christ and trust in him and so we pray that you would help us to take our theology and work it into our methodology to be that much more effective and honoring to you Lord
10:03:00
for the great work that you have done we ask these things in Jesus name amen